Tata rethinks Tanzania project

Tata Chemicals is exploring alternative locations to its proposed soda ash project at Lake Natron in Tanzania as it has not yet received environmental clearance, a senior company executive said in an interview with ICIS news. The other option is to expand its Magadi plant in Kenya.

Conservationists are protesting against the planned 500,000 tonnes/year soda ash plant at Lake Natron as it would disturb the habitat of flamingos. The pinkish red lake is the only East African site where the lesser flamingo has bred in the past 45 years.

Lake Natron, in the Great Rift Valley is also known as a soda lake because of its high concentration of sodium bicarbonate.